Official: NiP sign draken

Ninjas in Pyjamas have confirmed via their website the signing of William "draken" Sundin from Epsilon.

The Swedish youngster will replace Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi, who remains on the team as a backup player, with NiP stating that they "hope to see him on the active roster again in the future."

The move comes after a series of mixed results from NiP which culminated with the team failing to qualify for the ELEAGUE Major.

draken signs for NiP

pyth joined NiP in December 2015 after returning to Sweden from the United States, where he had spent six months representing Luminosity and Winterfox. During his time on the roster, the team's notable achievements include winning DreamHack Masters Malmö and IEM Oakland, and taking third-fourth at the ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals.

"During the last few months our results have been below our expectations and we have not been able to find good solutions," NiP coach Björn 'THREAT' Pers told the team's website.

"We have tried swapping roles but we are not able to find a good balance with the current lineup. The key thing we are missing is a dedicated AWPer and that's why we're happy to announce the recruitment of William “draken” Sundin.

"William has been on our radar for quite a while, and with him we believe all the players can play a role they are comfortable with.

"During 2016, we managed to win three titles and Jacob was a crucial part of those victories winning us many rounds thanks to his explosive playstyle.

"However, we cannot overlook that fact that his playing style does not fit the AWPing-role but rather roles that other players in the team are currently occupying."

William "draken" Sundin burst onto the competitive scene in early 2016 with Cringe Gods, with whom he would attend the European Minor for the MLG Columbus Major.

Shortly after that event, the players were recruited by Epsilon, and the team went on to scale greater heights, finishing 5th-8th at ESWC and WESG, and winning the WCA Finals after beating VG.CyberZen in the title decider.

"Getting picked up by Ninjas in Pyjamas is a dream come true for me," Sundin added. "One year ago, I was competing on the FaceIT platform, where I qualified for the minor in Bucharest.

"I have since then been working hard on improving and believe I can have an in-game impact in NiP.

"Even though the team has struggled a bit lately, they are still one of the top teams in the world and I am humble to have been given this opportunity.

"I am looking forward to getting started and proving my spot on the team!"

draken will make his first offline appearance for NiP at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries, from April 4-9, to which they have been invited.

malmö was stacked, starladder was stacked, iem was stacked...
good teams in all tournaments. just because it was 250k tournaments doesnt mean they are a joke.
i do agree they it doesnt feel like they are playing to be the best anymore though.

He was good at StarSeries, the last event they won and he actually played better at the qualifier than GTR iirc (despite being food poisoned).
Honestly it seems to me that with GTRs personal issues (relationship breakdown and illness) he has lost a lot of motivation and his game has gone to shit.
Since GTR is supposed to be one of the star players him performing poorly hurts the team much more than friberg.

How much do you have to suck to get kicked of a team? For real? I can understand Friberg not wanting to step down on his own since to be honest, no other team would want him. Forget Fnatic, Forget Godsent, maybe just maybe Epsilon but I don't think they can even pay their players full time.
How low can he get before he gets booted of the team ?

Dios mios.. He is good I give them that but he is way to young for that team. He shots hard as a fucking madman with the AWP but he can't take constructive criticism. Look @ the first time Maikelele joined NIP, he was good as fuck but he was to young at that time. Good player but it sadly wont work to fix the problems NIP have. They need other and bigger changes IMO ..

Just a thing to add to that - remember when NiP made 3/4 (can't remember) MAJOR finals in a row? They had dedicated awpers back then. Maikelele and Allu. When they kept changing the 5th they slumped to the point of not qualifying for the major. Maybe with the awper, they might get a bit of success out of it. Maikelele was too young, but was an insane player. Just cracked in the major final he played with NiP.

Draken is a great addition, but pyth definitely wasn't the right man to go. We can only hope that since he is still a backup, it isn't for contractual reasons and NiP are finally giving it their last shot with friberg, and potentially bringing pyth back in later (like faze with jkaem/kio).

Still wayy better awpers out there but nip are loyal and keep to their own. Nice to see and they will be a better team than with pyth just because of the main awp ability. Lets see this work.
Ps. Why not maikelele? He has proven to work well with nip. Drugs? Alcohol? the reason must be revealed!

"During the last few months our results have been below our expectations and we have not been able to find good solutions," NiP coach Björn 'THREAT' Pers told the team's website.
Oh is that so? I haven't even noticed your "poor results"

btw whats up with all the years of "we dont need a dedicated awper out playstyle doesnt revolve around it"
oh yea so fucking suddenly fucking rifler pyth isnt a good enough awper.
nip is toast and i embrace it

Maikelele, allu and pyth were kicked while being the 2nd/3rd best performers in the team.
Poor draken, he'll get burned by an absolete core that doesn't work for ages and keeps refusing to adapt and evolve.

+1 this
they should've replaced two players like fnatic did with their shuffle when they got olofm and krimz first time
it's almost never good to change just one player because he will get extra pressure that he wouldn't have if they got two so it would be devided between them

how does anyone still respect NiP... i mean come on.. at this point its obvious they only care about keeping their salary coming... they aren't going to be top 5 by switching one fucking player every 6 months-1year.. they only win when 3/5 players can show up... which is fucking hardly ever. THE FIFFY CURSE PREVAILS! FUCK NIP

my 2 cents.
Yes, pyth is a fantastic player and deserves his spot on NiP.
but,
I believe NiP feel the need to give GTR and Friberg space in-game. That's why they went with a dedicated AWPer : something that the've missed since lele and Allu. It's no secret that somehow GTR and Friberg performed better when lele stood in for them. Having Pyth in the team puts a lot of load on the rifler role, making GTR and Friberg take up roles/spots they are less comfortable with to account for Pyth. In the long haul, it's more about fitting roles to the game style of the team as a whole, and that includes THREAT.
Yes, given current form, Pyth probably deserves the spot more than GTR or Friberg. but remember that the classic 4 will not really break up till such time as they stop becoming relevant. All things considered, this is the best way to go for the team, especially since Pyth hasn't been released. I feel that if GTR /Friberg fail to perform, he will be brought back in.

Feel sorry for f0rest, surrounded by idiots.
Unless they switch Xizt NiP remains the same. He might be solid as a riflier but his fucking outdated and easily readable strategy wise for years now.
They might win 1-2 tournaments or reach final this year, but thats all, they wont be up there constantly for sure.
They always switching the 5th only, clearly not the 5th fault that NiP cant do shit.

Just why? Wtf? Kick friberg, not pyth.
NiP always kicking their fifth instead of fixing their shit 4-player core and kicking friberg
I used to be a nip fan but I have honestly now lost all respect to the org. They are just a pile of wankers sucking eachothers dicks in their 4-man-inside-circle and always screwing the fifth player. Enjoy the 10 months u will have in nip, draken. After that it is bye bye to you too like it always is for the fifth guy

LMFAO remove the 5th again these guys NEVER FUCKING LEARN, Your core is shit, GTR is shit, Xizt is the worst IGL in tier 1 atm & friberg has been up and down more than a cheap prostitute. This team desperately needs a new IGL, they need to kick Xizt & Friberg OR f0rest needs to find a new team cause these guys are ruining his legacy.
Edit: At least this move makes sense they finally have an AWPer the problem is Xizt doesn't know how to use his AWPer for shit.

I don't understand why so much hates on Xizt? He is the IGL and the most stable player in the NiP, he always has good stats. Simply, Xizt not so media-player and he dont have hyip like f0rest and GeT-RiGhT. But friberg is already 2 years old, so shit,1 good game out of 10, this is a terrible result. On epsilon, i like REZ and draken, both are always topfragers. -friberg + REZ

GL but NiP ain't VP, they started with Fiffy and now they hope to end like VP with Snax and Bialy instead of old players....
Wrong way guys, it's too late for this imo... Just go on retirement and let "fresh blood" represent your brand guys... Your time is over, you're not polish to be second VP ....

I dont Think that pyth was the problem with NIP.
There are a few issues, They do not have a primary AWP'er.(Draken will never be a tier 1 awp'er like KennyS, Fallen or Guardian)
Also Another problem is the lack of a good IGL. When Xizt plays at his best as IGL, then NIP has the prossibility to win big games.
f0rest & GeT_RiGht is under preforming.
In my opinion NIP needs a new IGL and f0rest & GeT_RiGht must step up their game. If not NIP has to consider to kick one or both of them. You can live on old merits.
GONINJAS !!!

Well, the switch will probably help them to stay motivated for a while and we might even see some results as per usual when NiP do a swap. Although, I'm not fully certain that draken is ready for T1 yet.
Pyth atleast had some big lans and some games vs T1 teams before joining NiP
I don't expect much from tonights game vs VP. I'd be surprised if NiP win a map considering they are playing Nuke and cobble vs VP which are basically their best maps

I think NiP needs to realise that it simply cannot just be "The new player" that's the problem all the time, there is clearly some problem that affects the whole team and should consider replacing someone/s else rather than blaming the new guy all the time.